Senators trade barbs as water service boilover continues

Sen. Wilmer Reyes Berríos

By THE STAR STAFF

Guayama District Sen. Wilmer Reyes Berríos on Wednesday accused at-large Sen. Luis Javier Hernández Ortiz of portraying himself as the watchdog of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) and the current administration, despite having left the Municipality of Villalba, where he had served as mayor, with a critical financial situation that includes a $3.6 million debt with the water utility.

Reyes Berríos maintained that the PRASA debt is only one part of the fiscal situation the municipality inherited after the departure of the then-mayor.

“We are not talking about an isolated figure,” he said. “We are talking about an administration that left millions in accumulated debt and a deficit that the citizens of Villalba are still paying for today.”

Reyes Berríos is a freshman senator affiliated with the governing New Progressive Party. Hernández Ortiz, also a freshman senator, is the Popular Democratic Party minority leader in the upper chamber and has been an outspoken critic of the slow pace of response by PRASA to water service woes afflicting the San Juan metro area and other parts of the island.

Reyes Berríos pointed out what he sees as the contradiction of someone who failed to meet basic payment obligations now attempting to position himself as an authority on matters of administrative efficiency.

“The same person now demanding explanations about PRASA, when he was responsible for administering it [in Villalba], allowed millions in debt to accumulate,” Reyes Berríos said. “Good management isn’t demonstrated by attacking from the Senate; it’s demonstrated by managing correctly when you have the power to do so.”

Reyes Berríos added that the more than $3.6 million owed to the PRASA represents resources that could have been used to strengthen pumping stations, improve infrastructure, and address urgent needs in Villalba, Corozal and other municipalities in the Guayama District that face supply challenges.

“Instead, debt accumulated, and he didn’t even make any payments to the PRASA in his last year in office,” he said. “Now the former mayor talks about responsibility, but he didn’t practice it before.”

Reyes Berríos noted that the information regarding the debt comes from official documentation requested by his legislative office.

“The problem isn’t auditing,” he said. “The problem is doing it without moral authority.”

Hernández Ortiz fired back later in the day.

“It seems that the government has been hurt by our oversight on the issue of PRASA and the [drinking water service] crisis in the metropolitan area (and in many municipalities) that they have sent colleague Senator Wimer Reyes to attack and defame me,” he said. “Bringing the crisis that thousands of families are experiencing, due to the water situation in the country, to an attack on this servant with incomplete and false information does not advance anything. You may be a novice to public service, but I’ve been fighting for our people for a long time. And I’m going to do it no matter what it costs me. Including the political attacks of people sent by his government.”

Hernández Ortiz went on to “take this opportunity to clarify several points: the first is that the municipality of Villalba, like many towns that you represent, suffered from overbilling and inefficient services by PRASA.”

“We have been in that battle for years,” he said. “These are numbers objected to by several administrations and that in the end a payment plan was achieved. Perhaps some mayors [in the Guayama District] have already brought that situation to him [Reyes Berríos]. The question is: what has he done to solve it?”